Home Was
by Frazi
Summary: Rangiku and Gin face off. Inspired from a picture.


**HOME WAS**

_(Bleach fic- Gin x Rangiku)_

Thursday, September 17, 2009

_Summary: Based on a picture I saw on titled "The Great Disappointment" by kara_lija. It somehow struck a chord. Rangiku and Gin face off. And I'm an optimist, so sue me.  
The Picture can be viewed on deviantart .com . Just search for her or the picture and make sure you drop a note, because it is beautiful._

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It should have been easy.

"Not so easy is it sunshine?"

Could he read her mind?

The swords should have been screaming against each other, but it was flesh.

Of all the possible outcomes of this battle, Rangiku hadn't expected this one. But then maybe she had. Maybe this is what she had dreaded. What she had anticipated. Wanted. No matter how wrong it was.

The gates of hell were no place for this, but in the darkness of their coliseum, there was just him and Rangiku Matsumoto had no idea how to win – win against Gin's fox like smile. The knowing smile that could read her mind and the wild beat of her heart.

"Don't call me sunshine."

It would have been weak to weep. But the poignantly familiar caress of his sleek, and deceptively powerful frame was enough to make grown men cry. Maybe not for the same reason, but after the endless exchange of blows, the bruises, the blood, he'd pinned her. Their swords at each other's throats and eyes caught.

His eyes. They were open. Blood red and knowing. Everything she had feared.

"You used to like me calling ya Sunshine."

"Used to," she tried to snap, but it came out like a child's wounded complaint.

The wide ever-smiling mouth stretched wider, showing teeth. The fangs she imagined. "Ah Rangiku, didn't they tell you not to take me on?"

"Did you expect someone else?"

"A lieutenant against a Captain?"

"Everyone else was busy," she provided stonily.

Neither sword budged.

"Ahhh," he sighed, eyes sliding shut as if in absolution. "You wound me." But when his eyes opened, she took a visible swallow. They were deadly. Deadly in their familiarity. "Is this how you plan to rid yourself of me?" He shook his head sadly, the smile falling away from his fox face; he looked genuinely disappointed. "I thought I taught you better Sunshine."

It was true. He had taught her better. The academy might have taught her how to fight, but he'd taught her how to fight dirty. "You know all my tricks."

His grin was triumphant. Teasing as always. "That is true."

The swords slid a hairsbreadth closer to skin, but only Rangiku's eyes flickered with concern.

"What were you expecting to accomplish?"

She didn't have it in her to lie. "A little blood. A little pain," she sang back in mock joviality. "A little death."

"Yours or mine?" He asked perceptively.

"Either way, it doesn't matter. Solves my problem."

"And what problem is that?"

Her glassy blue eyes lifted to his with absolute resolve. "You, Gin. You're my problem."

His face slid lower, his eyes heavy lidded, almost closed and Rangiku gasped as the pressure built on her throat, her fingers gripping Haineko harder. His breath wafting across her mouth, she was unprepared for his assault.

"Then we are at an impasse Sunshine," he whispered achingly. "Because you are mine. Like an itch I can never scratch."

The weight of his words hit her harder than his betrayal. His betrayal had left her incomplete. Broken. His admission tore something vital inside. "You bastard!" She snarled, struggling under him – furious. Like and angry lioness she came alive in the heat of battle. "Get off me!"

In her blind rage, she missed it. She missed the wide flash of fear in those red eyes as his sword drew a sliver of blood. She missed the tenseness of his muscles, the fraction of the retreat he allowed to keep from hurting her. "Rangiku, stop," he commanded.

"How DARE you speak to me of itching! You vile, two-faced, deceptive SNAKE!"

She didn't see the panic in the depths of his soul. She didn't notice the way his grip wavered on his zanpaktou. She missed the subtle shift of his smile from mocking to forced. "Keep still," he hissed heatedly. Almost desperately.

"You've scratched this itch and cured yourself of it, or else you wouldn't have left!" Like a woman possessed, she fought violently against his hold. Somewhere deep down, something screamed at her to get past her wounded feminine pride. Something was happening, it warned her, but she ploughed on. "This itch is the fucking scarlet letter, you treacherous monster! You left me behind to remind them of how close you were! So they could see how deeply you'd wounded them. You used me, you callous bastard!"

The short, deadly zanpaktou that had pinned her, cluttered to the floor, his fingers dug almost painfully into her shoulders as the woman snaked underneath him, testing his patience, his resolve and his conviction. "Rangiku, please…"

"I hate you!" She screeched. "I hate how you never told me who you really were. I hate how you took everything from me and gave nothing back! I hate how nothing was ever enough. How I was never enough!"

"STOP!" The lithe creature above her growled low in his belly, his demon red eyes darkening as he slammed her back against the ground – hard enough to jar her back to reality.

It was then that she noticed.

Her sword was stained with his blood where it caught against the first layers of skin. Another fraction and Haineko would have slit his throat.

She noticed everything. His blood, his fears. His vulnerability and his defeat.

They'd drawn blood.

And it had jarred them both.

Breathing hard, the red eyes stared into blue in a strange tableau of a battle. Like the clash of their swords. Hers still poised at his neck, a trail of blood sliding closer towards the hilt.

"Rangiku," he whispered, his breath still harsh, eyes skittering painfully, "you were always enough."

Her sword trembled, the blood slid closer. "Then why?"

The visible swallow this time was his. "It was the only way I knew."

"The only way to what?"

He seemed to be fighting against something inside him before he spat out. As if it was explosive to even speak of it. "To protect you."

Haineko wailed in protest as it landed on the ground. Away from its victim. Away from the easy kill. From absolution.

Tears clouded her vision, but she reached out with instinctive accuracy. The same way she could find every inch of him in the dark. Her bloody fingers slid into his silvery hair and he came down to her.

They'd kissed before. With less inhibitions and even less pain. But it had never been so sweet.

Or bitter.

Lips clung desperately, longingly until neither could hold on any tighter. This time their breaths mingled not in battle, but in acquiescing.

Foreheads resting against each other, neither seeing, they held on as if for life.

The woman found her balance first. "Then protect me Gin."

His frame stilled above her, his fingers froze in the sunshine gold of her hair. His breath lodged in his chest.

"Come home."

Blood red eyes opened in shock. "I can never come home Rangiku."

"I don't mean the Seireitei," she offered him a tremulous smile. "I meant me."

He shuddered visibly at the assault of her request. "Yer outa yer mind woman."

"I'm here, aren't I? Didn't that clue you in? I'm not very bright." She giggled. It was out of place and utterly feminine.

It was just like her. He couldn't help press closer to her, his sharpness nuzzling against her contours. "It's not as easy as it looks."

"Yes, it is." And just like the girl is gone and in her place is the woman. The pillar of strength. The good woman behind a better man. "It is just that easy Gin Ichimaru. Today, if one of us falls, neither of us wins. We have only two options. Either we die together, or we live together. I'm afraid, I'm partial to the latter."

It was impossible. What she was asking was impossible. She was thinking like a woman.

"Heaven and hell don't come together Sunshine." His fox smile was mocking. Sad.

Hers was sweetly sympathetic. Understanding. "We don't have to go either way. You and I have always met in between."

He stared down at her. "Are you suggesting…"

She smirked wickedly, her eyes flirting with his, her ample breasts teasing against the hard lines of his chest. "You always gave me the wrong choices Gin. It wasn't about holding onto you a little longer. It was about letting go." Her fingers slid down the slopes of his jaw, her eyes brimming with emotion. "Because you were always enough for me too."

He cackled, his eyes closing, his mouth widening into his patented smile. Cold. Deadly. Familiar. "This is insanity. Ichigo and Aizen…"

"Can deal with it," she coaxed huskily, pulling him closer. "You taught me how to fight dirty. There are enough signs of battle. Enough blood on Haineko and Shinso."

She was suggesting the unthinkable. Leaving them behind? Let them assume?

Fingers fisting in her golden hair, he sighed in defeat. "I shouldn't have taught you everything Rangiku."

Her lips whispered against his. "Call me Sunshine."

He smothered his laugh against her mouth.

When the victors found the two lonely zanpaktou, they lay among the bloodied pink scarf and white robes of the white Arrancar coat.

In the world of the living, a man hooked his arm around the beautiful woman's neck as they walked towards the empty road. It suited them that neither cared which way they headed.

Home was right where they were.

THE END


End file.
